For 40 years, Zest Anchors has been a global leader in the manufacturing of overdenture attachments. The original Zest® Anchor Attachment was developed in 1972 by Max Zuest at his dental laboratory in San Diego, California. Forty years later, this pioneer of dentistry is remembered for his vision, having invented self-aligning attachments to combat the damage done by the improper seating of overdentures. Our company has since achieved certification to the stringent requirements of ISO 90011/13485 for the design and quality manufacturing of dental attachments. The Locator® product line is our third generation of attachments and has achieved worldwide acceptance as the premier overdenture attachment in the dental industry.



Zest Anchors’ late founder, Max Zuest, was born in Switzerland and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. While working his way through college on a milk route, he was invited by a dentist to start dental laboratory work. In 1943, following his wartime service in the Canadian Army Dental Corps, Max bought a small dental lab in Vancouver. Five years later, he built the Star Rise, a 35-foot motor yacht that was completely outfitted with a dental operatory and laboratory. Leaving his Vancouver lab in the care of associates, Max cruised up and down the coast of British Columbia with a dentist friend for 2 years, performing dental services for logging camps.

In 1950, upon his return to Vancouver, Max sold the Star Rise and the lab, and they relocated to San Diego. Soon after arrival in San Diego, Max started Zuest Dental Lab in the Hillcrest area of town. Late in 1958, Jim Shiner joined Max as his partner for the growing Zuest Dental Lab. Together, they built a full-service laboratory with more than 100 employees.

In 1972, Max came up with the idea for the Zest Anchor Overdenture Attachment after using attachments imported from Europe with less-than-expected results. Later in 1977, Max formed the Zest Anchors Corporation to control the manufacturing and distribution of Zest Anchor Attachments. He was then joined by his son Paul, after he graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Biology. Max and Paul worked together in a small manufacturing facility in Kearny Mesa, California, machining, packaging, and shipping Zest Anchor kits to fill the increasing number of orders. The company moved to Escondido, California in 1990 where Max had a permanent manufacturing facility built for Zest Anchors. Later, Paul took over running the company.

In 1994, the Zest Anchor Advanced Generation, ZAAG® Attachment was developed and patented. The ZAAG® Attachment was produced as a root attachment and also manufactured to fit all major implant systems. This marked Zest Anchors’ entry into the implant attachments market. Worldwide sales of this attachment helped Zest Anchors to grow and prosper throughout the 1990s.

The Locator® Attachment System was introduced by Zest Anchors in 2001 after Scott Mullaly, Chief Operating Officer, and Paul Zuest worked together to develop and patent the third generation attachment system. The innovative Locator® Attachment is designed with the primary benefits of ease of insertion and removal, customizable levels of retention, low vertical profile, and exceptional durability. Its most critical design feature is its innovative ability to pivot. The pivoting technology increases the Locator’s resiliency and tolerance for the high mastication forces an attachment must withstand and allows it to compensate for the path of insertion even with up to 40 degrees of divergence between implants.

During seating, while the Locator® male pivots inside the denture cap, the system’s self-aligning design centers the male on the attachment before engagement. These two actions in concert allow the Locator® to self-align into place, enabling patients to easily seat their overdenture without the need for accurate alignment and without causing damage to the attachment components. This self-aligning feature also increases the durability of the Locator® Attachment. Once seated, the male remains in static contact with the attachment while the denture cap, which is processed into the overdenture, has a full range of rotational movement over the male for a genuine resilient connection of the prosthesis without any loss of retention.

The Locator® System offers both Locator® males and extended-range males, which provides clinicians with a variety of retention-level options to suit their patients’ needs and enables clinicians to accommodate various paths of insertion depending on implant positions. Locator males allow for insertion of the overdenture with up to 20 degrees of divergence between implants and are available with 1.5, 3, or 5 lbs of retention forces. Extended-range males allow for insertion of the overdenture with up to an extensive 40 degrees of divergence between implants and are available with 0, 1, 2, or 4 lbs of retention forces.

With the Locator® Attachment’s unique design, the overall restorative height of the overdenture is significantly reduced on all brands of endosseous implants. With a total attachment height of only 3.17 mm (male plus 1 mm cuff height) for an externally hexed implant, the Locator® saves a minimum of 1.68 mm of interocclusal space compared to other overdenture attachments. The Locator® Attachment also has twice the amount of retention surface area compared to other overdenture attachments available. Its unique dual-retention feature, which includes inside and outside retention, ensures long-lasting performance and predictable durability. Zest offers three Locator® Attachments for the various types of overdenture treatments: the Locator® Implant, Locator® Bar, and Locator® Root Attachments.

The Locator® Implant Attachment is the premier attachment for implant-retained, tissue-supported overdentures and is available for virtually every implant system. The Locator® Bar Attachment provides the same self-aligning feature, superb retention, a low-profile design, and long-lasting durability when a treatment plan calls for an overdenture bar. It is also offered in three options for the fabrication of a resilient attachment on an implant-supported cast alloy or milled-titanium bar. The Locator® Root Attachment is a supraradicular design with a choice of a straight post and 10- or 20-degree angled posts to accommodate divergent roots. A special cast-to version is also available.

In addition to our market-leading Locator® Attachment, Zest Anchors also offers the Saturno™ Pivoting O-Ring Attachment, which was developed, patented, and launched in 2011. Saturno™ makes restoring overdentures using O-rings much simpler and more predictable. This innovative new overdenture attachment features a race that pivots 15 degrees in any direction inside of the denture cap while securely holding the O-ring. These attachments compensate for divergent implant angles by creating an aligned fit that is forgiving and patient-friendly. Saturno™ offers a superior alternative for clinicians who prefer an O-ring attachment system.


Today, more than 70 manufacturers have partnered with Zest to customize its Locator® pivoting technology abutments to be interface-compatible with more than 350 different implant products. Zest Anchors does not have a direct sales force but rather a network of distribution partners. Internationally, Zest Anchors’ products are sold through a select number of distributors and OEM implant companies. In the United States, Zest also sells direct to customers via telephone or online orders. The majority of implant companies offer Zest products worldwide.

In an effort to give back to the community, Zest is honored to donate its products to the Dental Lifeline Network. Since 1975, the Dental Lifeline Network™, a charitable affiliate of the American Dental Association, has been transforming lives by providing people who are disabled, elderly, or medically at-risk with life-enhancing, and even lifesaving, comprehensive dental services.

In 2009, Zest Anchors was acquired by The Jordan Company, a New York private-equity firm. Paul Zuest retired from running the business in 2010 and became the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Steve Schiess then took over the position of CEO of Zest Anchors, LLC, in October 2010.
 
The continued success of Zest Anchors is cemented in the philosophy of placing patient satisfaction above all else. The worldwide acceptance of Locator® has propelled the corporation to new levels of accomplishment, and by creating exciting new products that are second to none, Zest continues to define the overdenture attachment market.

Zest Anchors is committed to the development of additional overdenture attachment products that will be available for the dental industry in the near future. In the coming year, Zest plans to introduce these new products designed to provide customers with new opportunities to increase practice revenues and fill the gaps in overdenture treatment options available to patients today.

For more information, please call 1.800.262.2310 or visit www.zestanchors.com.

This information was provided by Zest Anchors